Historical Society Moves Ahead with $25 Million Building Plan

The Martha's Vineyard Historical Society is pursuing an
ambitious plan to triple its exhibition and storage space in a project
that could cost about $25 million.

Society executive director Matthew Stackpole yesterday said that, if
all goes according to plan, construction of the society's new
museum could begin on its property in West Tisbury in 2009, with an
opening in June 2010.

Driving the plan, Mr. Stackpole said, are the historic materials and
artifacts that the society has been collecting since its formation in
1923.

The good news, he said, is that the society has a wonderful
collection dating back to early Wampanoag and colonial European times.
It's the kind of collection that the Library of Congress seeks out
for arctic whaling images.

The not-so-good news is that that collection is housed among the
society's buildings in a sometimes jumbled or cramped state, often
lacking climate protection.

"This collection needs attention," Mr. Stackpole said.
"It's growing. New things come along every day. We have no
space to put them. It's the collection that counts."

At present, the society's Martha's Vineyard Museum
exhibition and collection is housed in a series of buildings on its
campus at the corner of School and Cooke streets in downtown Edgartown.
Mr. Stackpole estimated the buildings collectively have 10,000 square
feet of space.

The society wants to build a complex of about 30,000 square feet on
10 acres that it owns off State Road in West Tisbury. Purchased by the
society four years ago for $1 million, the property sits between the
Polly Hill Arboretum and the Martha's Vineyard Agricultural
Society.

Mr. Stackpole said the complex would include a library, a permanent
collection space, an education space, which would be built as an adjunct
to either the library or permanent expansion space, a temporary
collection space, collection storage space, a lobby with a reception
area and a gift shop, and what he called a land and sea building to
house boats from the museum collection and agricultural implements on
loan from the agricultural society. Society offices would be situated
next to corresponding spaces in the complex.

Mr. Stackpole said designers now are contemplating whether to place
the collection storage in a separate building aboveground, or to place
it underneath several other buildings at the site. One possible option
is to design part of the storage space so that its contents also could
be viewed by museumgoers.

Conceptual plans now call for the spaces to be connected together
around a courtyard, save the land and sea building, which would stand by
itself to the rear of the complex. All the building spaces, again with
the exception of the land and sea building, would be climate-controlled.

Mr. Stackpole said the society is willing to abide delays in the
construction of the new complex, which it sees as a one-time,
multi-generational chance to properly house the museum collection.

"We're not going to do it until we can do it
right," he said.

The historical society received an anonymous gift of $1.5 million
toward the purchase of the land and the planning for a new museum
complex.

To set the project in motion, the society joined with the arboretum
and the agricultural society to buy a 25-acre parcel off State Road for
$2.5 million. Four years ago, the historical society put forward $1
million for a 10-acre section of the property, with the arboretum
acquiring 10 acres next to its existing State Road property and the
agricultural society adding five acres to its holdings.

Mr. Stackpole yesterday said the historical society is in the
so-called quiet phase of its capital campaign, where the nonprofit
organization is reaching out to potential large donors.

By the summer of 2008, Mr. Stackpole said, the society hopes to
announce that 50 to 70 per cent of the estimated project cost has been
raised.

The society then will launch a public appeal for the remainder of
the money needed to complete the project.

A couple of wild cards are in play as society officials consider the
proposed new museum.

One is the planned sale of most of the society's buildings and
land at the Cooke and School street campus. The society needs to use the
proceeds toward the West Tisbury project.

Mr. Stackpole said market conditions at the time of sale will
determine how much money the society can realize on the sale of the
campus. He said that although the sale will generate some money toward
the West Tisbury museum, society officials want to avoid placing too
much confidence in any prospective sum.

Mr. Stackpole said the society does plan to retain the Thomas Cooke
house on Cooke street (named for the family) as an example of a historic
Vineyard home. Built in 1765, and used today as a museum for visitors
the house never has had electricity or running water.

Another wild card is the final price of building the new complex.
Mr. Stackpole said museum construction experts who have advised the
society said the project price tag likely will accommodate inflation
between today and the onset and completion of construction. But future
inflation and final building costs remain unknowns.

Current plans for the new museum complex represent a scaling back of
the initial concept, which included a lecture hall, a cafe and a
permanent art gallery space.

Mr. Stackpole said the museum's board of directors decided to
concentrate on the museum's core mission of exhibiting and storing
its collection, which also shaved the estimated project cost from $30 to
$25 million.

Mr. Stackpole said the size of the parcel, 10 acres, also could
allow for future housing of museum workers.

The society has been working with a design team selected after a
request for proposals. The team includes the Gund architectural
partnership of Cambridge, the business advisory firm of Herb Sprouse
Associates of Cambridge, and Museum Design Associates of Cambridge.
Landscape designer Michael Van Valkenburgh, a summer resident of
Chilmark, has worked with the design team.

Mr. Stackpole said the timing is working out in the society's
favor, seeing that Martha's Vineyard Hospital plans to conclude
its $42 million capital campaign for the renovation and expansion of its
Oak Bluffs facility by the end of the year. He said the society would
not have wanted to compete directly against the hospital.

But even with a scaled-back project, $25 million is a lot of money;
the hospital's $42 million campaign is the largest in the
Island's history and has been arduous.

But Mr. Stackpole said the society would not embark on its campaign
if it doubted its success. "The people on this Island value their
Island history," he said.